The High Plains of Texas alone produce over 2,000,000 bales of cotton annually, each such bale representing about 500 pounds of lint, 860 pounds of seed and 640 pounds of waste material. The lint and seed are sold as commodities on the open market. This, however, leaves about 1.28 billion pounds of cotton gin waste in the form of burrs, leaves and twigs to be disposed of each year. The cotton gin waste is very high in organic matter, and farmers in this area have returned it to the field to use it as a soil conditioner.
Raw cotton gin waste is believed to be a carrier of pathogens, such as Verticillum Wilt, which are detrimental to woody or herbaceous dicotyledonous plants. Such waste also contains weed seeds which would be detrimental to, e.g., a home garden.
Burrs have been cubed and used as feed stuff for cattle. The cubing process itself is not a new procedure; it has been used in the feed industry for over forty years. Only recently, however, has this process been used in the cotton waste area.